Fixing what ain't broke

Super awesome weekend! Best yet this year.

I spent the weekend doing nothing but working in the yard. I moved some boulders, put a few in place on the west side of the driveway, bought mulch and put it around my trees and shrubs in the front, watered everything, stirred my compost pile, stacked wood and sticks, mowed, and then did a sort of unnecessary thing - I tore out a perfectly good built-in rock fire pit.

Actually it wasn't perfectly good. I had wanted to redo it and get the fire a bit further away from the patio - don't need more heat playing thermal expansion games with my new concrete. Plus I think someone called it "cute" and/or "litte". And that just ain't right.

So I tore it out.



And rebuilt it.



Now it's bigger, deeper, wider, and probably hotter, too.

Working on it

I'm kicking off the landscaping season with a couple of projects: the remaining area by the driveway and the backyard. I'm still in planning phase, and these pics show the current state and my wireframe blanks...

This area by the driveway will get some boulders and some more dirt.





The Northeast corner of the back yard needs some work - several shrubs and trees coming out, and some new trees going in.





Let the mess-making begin!

Oh yeah

It's here. It's finally here, and this time in a way that just can't be stopped. I'm talking about Spring and it's been a bit of a tease thus far in these parts. Of course with it comes a list of to-dos, some of which were accomplished this weekend. The stacking of wood, the picking up of sticks, sweeping and blowing leaves… Thank goodness there is no painting on the list, although I need to do a bit of touch-up in a couple spots. The focus this summer will be on landscaping both in front and in back. More boulders, more plants, some new trees, and one less apple tree, and the expected disappearance of a certain mulch pile.

Gonna do it again

I'm running again. I picked it up a couple weeks ago and hit the 5K goal last Wednesday. I didn't enter an actual 5K, just ran the distance around Marsh Lake. Training up to that distance took the least amount of time this year, compared to other years.

Must have been all the dodgeball I played this winter.

3 weeks ago (when it was 60, before it was 25 again) I walked it and ran the middle mile. Next time out I warmed up/cooled down the first and last 1/2 mile and ran the rest. Ran the whole route a week ago, then bumped it to 4 miles last night.

Last year my goal was to train up to 10K distance by the 4th of July. This year it's 10K by the end of May. Maybe try and get that time to under an hour by the 4th...